This invention relates generally to adapters for shotguns and is particularly related to a shotgun adapter which can be used for shooting different gauge shells from the same shotgun.
Several types of shotguns are generally available and are used for a variety of shooting activities and for competing in different types of sport shooting. As mentioned in U.S. Pat. No. 5,448,848 issued to Clifford Moller on Sep. 12, 1995, shotguns are designed to fire pellets, through a barrel with a smooth bore. These shotguns either have a single barrel or they can be double barreled. The bore sizes of the shotguns can range from 12 gauge, 16 gauge, 20 gauge, 28 gauge and 0.410 bore. Since shotgun shooters like to shoot rapidly and accurately, attempts have been made to provide new shotguns, or improve the construction of the available shotgun in order to facilitate rapid and accurate shooting, and without increasing the cost of production of the shotguns. Such attempts include providing shotguns which have interchangeable barrels of different gauges. This, of course requires changing the shotgun barrel each time the shooter desires to shoot a different gauge. Some of the prior art suggestions to accommodate the desire of the shotgun shooters are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,989,359 and 5,018,293 which are mentioned in the aforementioned Moller patent. In an attempt to solve the prior art problems, the Moller patent discloses as shotgun having a shotgun barrel tube of specified construction which is complicated and expensive to fabricate and which does not satisfy the foregoing needs of shotgun shooters, particularly those participating in shooting competitions.
In a subsequent patent of Clifford Moller, i.e., U.S. Pat. No. 5,666,756 issued Sep. 16, 1997, Moller describes a shotgun which has lightweight interchangeable barrel tube. Again, the shotgun described in said patent does not meet the needs and objectives of shotgun shooters.
In a somewhat earlier patent, i.e., U.S. Pat. No. 5,157,210 issued to Albert W. Davis on Oct. 20, 1993, Davis discloses a shotgun cartridge adapter for safely firing a shotgun cartridge in a shotgun of a larger gauge. This patent discloses the use of an adapter to be applied and carried with the shotgun cartridge for firing from a shotgun of smaller size cartridge than that for which the gun is chambered. This adapter is cylindrical in form, has generally the same external configuration as the shotgun cartridge, and internal configuration as the gun chamber sized to receive a shell of selected gauge. This construction, however, has inherent disadvantages. Since its inner walls are straight, the shell tends to get stuck in the adapter.
One early patent, i.e., U.S. Pat. No. 3,196,569 issued Jul. 27, 1965 to Daniel J. Thomason discloses an adapter for use with a shotgun of a specified gauge wherein the adapter may be positioned within the shotgun barrel. The adapter may be made in different sizes so that they can be used in conjunction with shotguns of varying gauges. However this adapted, too, is not entirely satisfactory and does not provide the desired shooting speed and accuracy required in skeet and competitive shooting. Thus, there is still a need to provide a shotgun adapter which overcomes the aforementioned problems of the prior art shotguns and shotgun adapters, particularly for use in competitive shooting, such as, skeet shooting and sporting clays.
In our aforementioned copending application Ser. No. 09/835,173 filed Apr. 16, 2001, we disclose a shotgun adapter which can be used to shoot different gauge shells from the same shotgun. The adapter disclosed therein overcomes the problems associated with the use of prior art shotguns and shotgun adapters. It has now been further discovered that the smaller the shotgun shell gauge, the larger must be the shooting xe2x80x9canglexe2x80x9d as will be described hereinafter in more detail.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a shotgun adapter for use in shotguns for shooting rapidly and accurately to produce accurate shooting pattern.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a shotgun adapter which permits the use of shotguns capable of shooting different size cartridges without changing the shotgun barrel.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a shotgun having optimum shooting angle for different gauge shells.
It is another object of this invention to provide a shotgun adapter having unique construction and configuration designed to assure improved pellets patterns.
It is also an object of this invention to provide such a shotgun adapter which is relatively simple and economical to fabricate and convenient to use, particularly for skeet shooting and sporting clays.
The foregoing and other objects of the present invention will be more clearly appreciated and understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which form part of this application.
In accordance with the present invention, a shotgun adapter is provided for firing different gauge shells from the same shotgun. The shotgun adapter is a cylindrical tube having a central bore. The outer wall of the adapter is tapered inwardly at its front end and the inner wall is tapered outwardly toward said end. Both tapered portions are coterminous at the front end, and the rear end of the adapter is machined to receive a shotgun shell. The degree of taper of the outside wall of the adapter is between about 1 and about 1xc2xd degrees and the degree of taper of the inner wall of the adapter may vary depending on the gauge of the shotgun shell. The smaller the shell gauge, the greater is the shooting angle, i.e., the angle between each tapered inner wall and the side of the shotgun column. The shotgun adapter may be made of a suitable plastic or metal which can be conveniently fabricated to various gauges.